Passover

Meaning

Proper Noun

• The seven-day (Reform Judaism) or eight-day (Orthodox and Conservative Judaism) Jewish festival of Pesach, commemorating the biblical story of the Exodus, during which the first-born sons of the Israelites were passed over while those of the Egyptians were killed.
• The one-day Biblical feast or festival (not a holy day) that begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month (Nisan 14), which is then immediately followed by the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15 to 21; the first and seventh days are holy days or annual Sabbaths).
• The Christian holy day generally falling on the first day of the Jewish Passover.

Related

Similar words

• Feast of Matsot, Feast of Matzot
• Feast of Unleavened Bread
• Festival of Matsot, Festival of Matzot
• Festival of Unleavened Bread

Origin

• From the verb phrase pass over. The term passover was coined by William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536), the first translator of the Bible into modern English, as a literal translation of the Hebrew פֶּסַח : pesach.